Tag Archives: Jane’s Walk

Next Gay History Walk & Other News

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

We are excited to be participating again this year with Jane’s Walk, an event coordinated by the Calgary Foundation. There are over 40 community walks to take in. Our Downtown Gay History Walk (new) will take place Saturday, May 3rd at 10 AM. Our meeting point will be at the front steps of CommunityWise (the Old Y) at 223 12 Ave. SW. Everyone is welcome.

To be perfectly honest the full walk has not been scripted yet. If you have a good downtown gay history story, contact us in the next week or so, and we will try to incorporate it.

It has been a sad time in Calgary with the murder of five young University of Calgary students. Of particular note, is the passing of Lawrence Hong, who was an active and visible volunteer in the queer community.

The Calgary Herald’s Val Fortney and Xtra.ca’s Douglas Boyce have both written lovely memorial articles. Calgary Transit’s touching gesture of creating bus route 430 in honour of Lawrence was quite moving, with funds raised to support our very own Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival.

One can often find solace in the arts, and I wanted to note Third Street Theatre’s original theatrical production, The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus has opened this week.

Created by the lauded Queer Theatre Creation Ensemble, this three-person historical drama is on original work based on the controversial true story of two Roman soldiers married by the Christian church in 300 AD and martyred for their faith by the Roman Empire. The production runs April 22^rd – May 3^rd, 2014 at EPCOR CENTRE’s Motel.

[KA]

Pride Week Calgary Queer History Events

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

Pride Week is beginning, running August 23rd – September 2 (every year Pride gets a bit longer it seems). We do not have to wear masks anymore, politicians and high-profile Calgarians like to be associated with it; this being a municipal election year, I am curious as to how many civic aldermanic candidates we will see out.

This also marks the one year anniversary since we have launched the project. We would like to thank all of the readers, fans, and supporters who have helped along the way. We would also like to thank our elders who have taken the time to sit for interviews and share their stories of Calgary in the 50s and 60s.

You can find the Calgary Queer History crew at events throughout the week, but specifically, you are welcome to join us for the Beltline Gay History Walk on Wednesday, August 28th beginning at 7:30 (see poster below), as well we will be staffing a project info booth at the Pride Street Festival on September 1st – please come say, “hi.” Happy Pride!

[KA]

Gay History Walk Revisited & Other News

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

The queer history project has some exciting news. The province has come on as a project sponsor through the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation – thank you province’o’mine, and thank you Culture Minister Heather Klimchuk, who wrote us a kind congratulatory letter.

Since the project launched at last year’s Pride Week, there have been more than 7000 readers on the site including visitors from over 55 countries. We have had two incredibly well attended public presentations, and one amazing gay history walk as part of the international Jane’s Walk movement supported locally by the Calgary Foundation.

Many of you who missed the walk last May, have been asking for a repeat, and I am happy to report we have one scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, August 28th from 7:30 – 9:00 PM. [I suspect that we will retire to a local pub afterwards for any who want to mingle and chat!]

The walk will commence from CommunityWise (formerly the Old Y) at 223 12 Avenue SW – an important building that was a focus for our city’s fledgling gay right’s movement in decades past. A current tenant there is Calgary Outlink, our queer community support organization, who also is an ongoing sponsor of the queer history project.

Finally, we will have a table at this year’s Pride Street Festival, Sunday, September 1st. Come by, pick up a project postcard, and talk to us about queer history in Calgary – we would love to meet you.

p.s. If you have not seen it, Stephen Fry’s open letter to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, calling for a ban of the Sochi Olympics is powerful. Closer to home Alberta queer right activist, Kristopher Wells, called for a similar ban in an Edmonton Journal editorial.

p.p.s. For links to more queer news sites, check out blogger Joseph Atkins
“Top 50 LGBT Google+ Pages Worth Following“.

[KA]